This invention relates to communication systems and, more particularly, to telecommunication systems which provide telemetry services. Telecommunication systems employing telemetry applications are well known. Telemetry generally involves the transmission of data which represents status information concerning a remote device or function.
In order to perform telemetry applications, providers of telemetry services (such as a telephone company or third party service provider) are required to communicate with one or more telemetry devices such as telemetry interface units (TIUs), meter interface units (MIUs) or directly to the telemetry units without going through an interface or gateway.
Utility service providers, such as local electric power, natural gas, water providers, and information service providers are capable of accessing their telemetry units (such as usage meters or display devices) located at customer locations through the telecommunication lines for the customers via a suppressed ringing protocol, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,694 issued Feb. 23, 1993 to Garland for xe2x80x9cTelemetry Access Arrangementxe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,054 issued Apr. 16, 1996 to Garland for xe2x80x9cCommunication Switching System.xe2x80x9d Both of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference with respect to such suppressed ringing and should also be referred to for general background on telephonic networks.
Suppressed ringing sets up a call path between a server and a telemetry device such as a TIU, MIU or a consumer premise equipment (CPE) via a public switched telephone network. The server first selectively sends a tone that alerts (wakes up) the telemetry device making it active (some go off hook to transmit data, others remain on hook to transmit data) without ringing the line connected to the telemetry device. The call path is not affected by the features on the line like call forwarding. Alternatively, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal or a dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) alert technique may be employed. Once the telemetry device is active, the server then communicates with the telemetry device. This allows for two way communication between the server and the telemetry device without sending a ring alert signal and distrubing (ringing) the consumers at-the location of the telemetry device or being effected by the features that the consumers may have enabled such as call forwarding, call blocking, automatic recall or other similar features.
Disadvantageously, in known systems, problems occur for telemetry service providers when telephone number changes are made by the end customers. Providers of telemetry services are not able to efficiently communicate with a telemetry device at a fixed location when telephone numbers are changed by a customer. Unfortunately, in this situation telemetry service providers cannot communicate with a telemetry interface (or gateway) due to the changing of directory number (DN) information associated with the premise and/or serving switch. The task of associating DNs to telemetry device location and serial number is commonly referred to as number administration.
At present, DN changes and unpublished DNs are tracked via the service order process and/or direct links to a non-switch database that records customer DNs and address, such as the E911 database. However, delays in database updates, additional interfaces, management of unpublished numbers, the proprietary nature of the service, and E911 databases render this type of tracking inefficient, inaccurate, expensive and never current.
The above problems are solved, and a number of technical advances are achieved in the art, by implementing a system and method for a communication system with telemetry device capabilities. The inventive system and method permits a telephone service provider to poll lines served by a switch including those which are flagged as having telemetry devices attached as customer premise equipment (CPE).
In accordance with the invention, a system for polling communication lines in a communication system having a plurality of communication lines and at least one telemetry device coupled to one of the plurality of communication lines is described. The system comprises a network switch that creates a polling signal and a network switch transmitter that transmits the polling signal from the network switch to one of the communication lines. A network switch receiver is utilized to receive a reply signal from the one communication line and a processor is employed to determine whether the one communication line is associated with the telemetry device in response to receipt of the reply signal. The processor additionally determines customer identification associated with the telemetry device.
Also in accordance with the invention, a method of polling communication lines in a communication system having a network switch, a plurality of communication lines and at least one telemetry device coupled to one of the plurality of communication lines is described. The method comprises the steps of creating a polling signal at the network switch, transmitting the polling signal from the network switch to one of the communication lines, receiving a reply signal from the one communication line and determining whether the one communication line is associated with the telemetry device in response to receipt of the reply signal. The method also includes the step of determining customer identification information associated with the telemetry device.